By: Paul A Brallier8th Apr 2022 10:39AMMrs John Beaton was born Laura Pelletier 10 Jun 1882, Madawaska, New Brunswick, Canada and died 20 Dec 1920 Canon City, CO, USA. She was daughter of Paul Pelletier and Arthemise Montreuil.
Mrs Walter McDonald was born Mathilde Pelletier 26 Oct 1886 in New Brunswick and died 13 Sep 1940 Yakima WA, USA. She was daughter of Eugene Pelletier and Sara Montreuil. Walter McDonald's extended family lived in Potomac.
It appears that the two girls are sitting on mules, not horses.
The two girls were cousins thru their mothers. Both girls' mothers died before 1888. Laura was in a boarding school/orphanage in about 1890 when Eugene brought both girls to Potomac to be raised by their aunt Mary Pamela Montreuil wife of John "Dick" Richards who was a farmer and prospector in Potomac. Family history is that the Potomac School construction was prompted by the arrival of the girls and that they were the first graduates of the school.
Laura Pelletier married John "Little John" Beaton 25 Jun 1901. John Beaton was a mining partner and neighbor to Dick Richards. Laura and John had five children born in Potomac. Sarah Ann, Catherine Monica, John Richard, Mary Barbara and Daniel Franklin. During the 1910 Big Burn, John joined the firefighters and Laura was so frightened that she spent all day praying. The next year they moved to Strathcona, Alberta and later moved to Canon City where John continued prospecting. Laura died after a miscarriage in 1920.
Little John Beaton arrived in Potomac in 1884. He and his sister Sarah Ann bought 340 acres of farmland on Cama Prairie Road SE of Potomac. Little John also had 21 mining claims in the area.
Eugene Pelletier, father of Mathilde died in Missoula in 1935 and is buried in the old St. Mary's Cemetery.
The ancestors of Laura and Mathilde were founders of Quebec Jean Pelletier husband of Marie-Anne Langlois and Filles du Roi Marie-Claire de la Hogue wife of Jean Sedilot dit Montreuil, & Francoise Grenier wife of Noel Langlois.